Ernest Scared Stupid

With Halloween right around the corner, we figured it was a good time to scare ourselves stupid. Okay, okay... so maybe this one isn't quite as terrifying as it was when we were nine, but it's still an interesting halfway point in the long-running series of Ernest movies. On one side you've got the well-known, theatrically released titles we all remember. On the other, there's a bunch of straight-to-video entries you'd probably rather forget. As it turns out, the fallout from this installment played a pretty significant role in that shift. But before we discuss how this one came together and the consequences of its too-creepy-for-kids premise, we talk about the Ernest character in general. Although we all remember being completely enamored with him as kids, we were pretty shocked to realize that none of us had particularly clear memories of any of his movies, TV shows, or commercials.

Topics include: the six (!) other Ernest movies in development at the time that were ultimately abandoned in favor of this one, the unlikely comparison Carlos drew between these opening credits and some of HBO's late night programming, how similar the early moments are to Hocus Pocus, what in the world Eartha Kitt is doing in this movie and how all of this is sort of her fault, Chris' somewhat disturbing story about building haunted houses with his friends, how great all of the troll effects still look, the right way to talk to your plants, some big problems with the final showdown, and much much more!